Interpretation of computed tomography of the cervical spine by non-radiologists: a systematic review and...

After trauma, clearance of the cervical spine refers to the exclusion of underlying serious injuries. Accurate assessment of computed tomography (CT) is commonly required prior to clearance of the cervical spine. Delays to clearance can lead to prolonged immobilization with associated patient discomfort and adverse effects. This systematic review aimed to determine performance of non-radiologists to evaluate cervical spine CT.

MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane library with sources of grey literature and reference lists of selected articles were appraised from inception to April 2021. We included manuscripts that reported discordance in CT cervical spine interpretation between non-radiologists and radiologists. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS) was used to assess quality of included studies and statistical heterogeneity was assessed using the I² statistic.

There were 43 studies identified for eligibility and 4 manuscripts included in the final analysis. There were two studies that reported on the performance of radiology residents, one study on the performance of surgical residents and one on emergency physicians. The pooled discordance was 0.25 (95%CI 0.21-0.28) but was lower for radiology residents (range 0.007-0.05). There was significant statistical heterogeneity (I²  = 99.6%, P < 0.001) among studies.

There is a paucity of evidence documenting the ability of non-radiologists in accurately interpreting CT of the cervical spine. A number of discordant findings suggest that studies with larger sample sizes are indicated to accurately ascertain the ability of non-radiologists in this area.